14 weekly sessions held in Paeroa - starts Thursday 24th March, 2016 - 10am to 12.30pmThis FREE programme aims to encourage positive family relationships while acknowledging that parenting is one of the most important jobs that adults can do.

For parents of 3 to 8 year olds

Learn strategies to help parents manage challenging behaviour Develop strategies to build positive relationships with your children 14 sessions once a week for 2 1/2 hours

On 22nd October 2015 Sue Smith from CAPS Hauraki hosted an evening seminar ‘Living with Teenagers’.

This was a really informative evening where we learned about teenagers’ brains, their thinking and their behavior, and how to have effective and respectful parenting with our teens.

Below are some brief notes that are of interest to every parent dealing with teenagers.

If you would like to be notified about any seminars that CAPS hold, please email reception@capshauraki.co.nz and we will add you to our mailing list.

Living WITH teens

What happens in the brain during adolescence?

Pre frontal cortex is ‘out for renovation’ during toddler & adolescence years due to pruning that is happening in their brain.

Circadian rhythm is nonexistent. Adolescents find it hard to wake in mornings & hard to go to sleep at night.

Similar to toddlers, adolescents are influenced by their emotions & their peers- how I feel & what my mate says/does.

Adolescents find it difficult to determine facial expressions of others. Mostly they just think that others are either happy or angry/sad.

The above are biological imperatives.

What is important for us (parents/carers) to remember?

We need to model ‘prefrontal cortex’ again & again & again- how to be rational, logical & self-regulate our emotions.

Being aware of the above changes in their brains help us understand, support & guide our adolescents rather than clash with them.

Communicate with them.

Communicate when your teen is available to ‘hear’ you. This will be individual for ‘your’ teen. As adults we are able to use our whole brain including the pre frontal cortex (part of our brain responsible for reasoning, planning, higher thinking, empathy & more) & model emotional self-regulation for 90% of their time. Adolescents have the capacity to do the same & on average only for 10% of their time so begin to notice when this (10%) time may be to create the best opportunity for effective 2 way communication

CAPS Hauraki is celebrating the opening of another office in Thames and the launch of a sexual abuse support service on Monday 2nd November.

After over 10 years in the Queen Street building, CAPS will now have two offices in Thames, one in Queen Street and one in Mary Street. The new office will be at 200 Mary Street in the carpark behind the Civic Centre.

CAPS Hauraki will also be launching a new Sexual Abuse Support Service which will offer support and information to people in the Hauraki and Thames/Coromandel regions.

General Manager Jo Taylor says “with around 1 in 4 people experiencing sexual violence in our region, it is important that people have access to specialist sexual abuse support. We are really excited to be able to provide this new service for the community.”

The Sexual Abuse Support Service has come about as a result of the input and lobbying of many local services and individuals who had identified a gap in services for survivors of sexual violence and their families.

The new service will offer a 24/7 helpline which will run through the national Rape Crisis phone line 0800 88 33 00. If people call from a landline, they just need to select 2 to get to access CAPS Hauraki helpline staff. If calling from a mobile, select 3 then 2.

The service will also offer support for survivors going through Police and Medical systems as well as crisis counselling and support. Text (027 732 7000) and email support (helpline@capshauraki.co.nz ) are also available during business hours.

The new premises in Mary Street will offer a range of services including the sexual abuse support services. We are hoping the community will come to the new building to access any support or information about our services.

From mid-October, the Thames / Coromandel and Hauraki regions will have a sexual abuse crisis service.

CAPS Hauraki (CAPS) have recently been awarded a one year grant from the Ministry of Social Development to provide a much needed, locally based Sexual Abuse Crisis Service.CAPS General Manager, Jo Taylor says “a huge number of local people and agencies have worked for years to raise awareness around the need for this service.Their hard work has paid off and by mid-October local people living with the impact of sexual violence will be able to get help without having to travel out of the region”. The service’s main office will be in the central Thames area, and will provide support to both male and females affected by sexual abuse via a 24/7 0800 Helpline, a call out support service working alongside local Police and a weekday crisis counselling and support service for people who have experienced recent or historical sexual abuse. Rachel Harrison, CAPS Service Leader, will head up the service.“CAPS and the Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Network have been working to make this service happen for a number of years. It is just awesome that our community will soon have this safe, confidential, specialist service available for anyone needing it”. CAPS is setting this service up from scratch so are busy recruiting staff. Check out this week’s Hauraki Herald situations vacant column for more details.